Blue Economy Project charts its course

Monday

Mar 13, 2017 at 5:54 PMMar 14, 2017 at 11:23 AM

Regional effort to seek state assistance for next phase.

Sean F. Driscoll @SeanFDriscoll

CENTERVILLE — Leaders of a regional effort to promote and sustain the so-called "blue economy" on Cape Cod and the Islands will have a plan in place by June to chart the project's course over the next two to three years — if they can persuade the state to give them more money to move the effort forward.

The Blue Economy Project, spearheaded by the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and Cape Cod Commission, has spent months holding listening sessions from Provincetown to Plymouth to get input from anyone connected, even tangentially, to the region's maritime economy to help expand the economic base beyond tourism into something more sustainable. After nine listening sessions that brought 86 people and generated 84 distinct ideas about what the blue economy should encompass, the project team is now working on a final report to present to the state's Seaport Economic Council in June.

The council, which awards money to advance the maritime economy in coastal communities, provided $180,000 for the project's first phase last year. The second phase, if funded, will take two to three years and focus on carrying out the goals identified from the current work. The third phase would focus on sustainability and finding ongoing funding for the work.

Although the term "blue economy" has been used in other projects, the Cape's unique mix of maritime activities, from science in Woods Hole to fishing in Provincetown, makes the project a unique effort, said its director, Leslie-Ann McGee.

"There's no real road map for one of these," she said. "We're blazing our own."

McGee and other project principals gave its steering committee an update Monday afternoon at the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, where they reviewed the results of the data gathering and community engagement that have been underway.

From the listening sessions, the project's leadership identified five categories that most of the facets of the blue economy belong to: industry, community, environment, education and infrastructure. It also has identified 392 "high blue" and 1,693 "medium blue" companies on the Cape, based on their degree of maritime reliance. Between both categories, the firms bring in $1 billion in revenue a year, according to McGee, speaking to the ubiquity and importance of the maritime economy to the region.

"As soon as you mention 'blue economy,' instantly almost everyone gets it," said Bert Jackson, the project's director of community outreach.

But some in attendance said a strong push needed to be made to make sure that people outside of the Cape get it as well. Mark Forrest, a former town manager in Provincetown and longtime consultant to local governments, spoke of the frustration in trying to obtain $500,000 in state funding to buy a $2 million second dredge to work on local projects. The county owns one dredge, the Codfish, but demand for it is high and the county is trying to expand its dredging capacity.

"Policymakers at all levels need to understand how important this infrastructure is to us," he said.